Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
Angus
Ready to call Colt and tell him and Ben to get their asses home, I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
I was worried about the kid, too, but Colt had texted me over an hour ago to tell me Jeremiah was much better, so what was taking them so damn long?
They needed to be here when we made the call to Jackson’s parents.
And maybe I missed them a little bit.
Walking out of the kitchen, I came to a stop when the front door opened and there they were. Damn, looking at my two mates made my heart beat like I was being chased by a wild bear.
“Ben, you look tired,” I said a little gruffly. Lucy always said I needed to work on my tone. A little more gently, I added, “Come here,” and opened my arms wide, folding him inside them when he came to me.
“I can’t be tired. I just woke up from a nap.”
I looked at Colt. “You okay?”
“Sure, why wouldn’t I be okay?” he asked, shrugging out of his jacket.
“You’ve had a long day.”
“Hi, I’m here, too, and I’m tired but okay as well,” Laura said, passing me and going into the kitchen.
“Same,” Nova said, following her.
I lifted my eyebrow at Colt.
“She has an omega nephew about to be turned over to the government,” he said.
I nodded. “Ah.”
Colt gave me a hug and a kiss, and then we each kissed Ben.
The doorbell rang and Colt went to open it. Bertram and Trey stood on the porch, baby Bertie asleep in Bertram’s arms.
“Come in,” I said. “Don’t worry—we’ve cleaned the house from top to bottom today. No one here is sick.”
David came in from the living room. “Hi, you guys. Come put little Bert down in the portable crib. It’s all clean and ready for him.”
Trey took the baby from Bertram and followed David.
I texted Maddox that they were there and, a few seconds later, he came down the hall with Carter and Jackson.
Jackson set his laptop on the coffee table and began tapping away at the keys. “I’ll have Mom and Dad on here in a jiff,” he said.
“Kids are all in bed,” David said, returning with Trey. They sat together in the oversized chair.
Looking at Bertram, I said, “Colt, Ben, and I are mates.”
Eyes widening, Bertram turned to look at me. “You sly dog! You acted like you had no intention of mating an omega, and here you’ve done it and taken on Colt to boot.” He frowned. “Wait a dang minute. Colt’s not a beta, he’s an alpha! How the heck does that work?”
“That’s a subject for another day,” I said, settling in a chair. “Colt, would you grab a couple of the kitchen chairs and bring them in here?”
Colt started in there, then immediately backed out.
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you getting the chairs?” I asked.
“Uh, yeah. I didn’t want to interrupt, though.”
“Interrupt what?”
Laura and Nova walked out of the kitchen, Laura’s face as pink as the peonies Lucy used to grow in the garden and Nova looking far away in her thoughts. I didn’t think either one of them noticed me and Colt standing there. Sharing a look, we hurried into the kitchen to get the chairs.
“I’m a little confused on what this’s about,” Bertram said when we were all seated in the living room and Elise and Vaughn Michaels had greeted everyone from the computer screen where Jackson had called them using Skype.
“You’re familiar with the Omega Reintroduction Program, obviously. And you probably know from the news that there are parents of registered omegas who are up in arms because the government won’t give them contact information.”
“Yeah,” Bertram said. “I’ve heard about that, but I figure it’s all a load of hogwash. Trey is in contact with his folks.” He looked at Jackson. “And it looks like you are, too.”
“Only because we hid our son,” Elise Michaels said from the computer screen.
Leaning forward, I saw an attractive alpha woman with dark, wavy hair and dark-gray eyes like Jackson’s sitting next to an equally attractive man with lighter hair wearing a business suit.
“Hid him? Why?”
“Because we didn’t and still don’t trust the government,” Vaughn Michaels said. “Jackson, David, and Ben were never registered. They were hidden until their own parents could find them mates.”
Looking surprised, Bertram’s eyes went from Angus to Maddox to Carter. “That’s how you got with your mates? I knew something was going on with Ben because Angus asked us to keep it to ourselves that he lived here, but I didn’t know it was because he was unregistered.”
“What about you, Nova? You said your nephew is a registered omega?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’ve been suspicious of this program from the get-go, but my sister won’t listen. She thinks the government is giving Dawson his only chance at a good life.”
I looked at Trey, sitting next to David in the oversized chair.
They were holding hands, as though for support.
David, Jackson, and Ben practically grew up together and had reason to be close, but Trey was new to the group.
It was odd how quickly the other three bonded with him and he with them, almost as though he’d been with them all along.
“Angus?” Laura said, interrupting my thoughts, and I realized I’d been staring.
I shared what I’d been thinking.
Laura nodded. “Omega bonding. I began to notice it several years ago.”
“Omega bonding? Is that a documented occurrence?” Elise’s voice filled the room from the speaker plugged into the laptop.
“Well, as you know, so little is known about omegas. But in my limited studies, I’ve found them to form close relationships with one another. Remember the omegas I told you about that the SOS rescued from a kidnapping situation about five years ago?” Laura asked Elise.
Leaning forward in his chair, Colt said, “Whoa. What kind of kidnapping situation?”
“Seven registered omegas from different families who were getting close to their times of ripening suddenly disappeared from their homes. They were from different regions and walks of life. They had nothing in common except that they were omegas. When the culprits were tracked down and caught—three beta men and two beta women, none involved with the government and all with police records—evidence suggested they were planning on either selling the omegas illegally to alphas or trafficking them to alphas for sex. I was on the team of doctors who treated them, and in my observations of the seven boys, I found they had all formed a very tight bond with one another.”
“That could have been due to the circumstances, though,” Elise said.
“Yes, of course. But all seven with no exceptions? They were all equally close, and by that, I mean as close or closer than brothers.” She glanced meaningfully at David and Trey’s clasped hands and then at Jackson and Ben, who were seated close together on the couch, Ben fast asleep with his head on Jackson’s shoulder.
“I thought he said he just had a nap,” I said to Colt.
“He did.”
I hoped he hadn’t caught what Ollie and Jeremiah had been sick with, although it seemed to have been confined to just children.
“And these were omega boys at their ripening age,” Laura continued.
“At the same age, when alphas get near their first rut, they do not exhibit this closeness. In fact, they become very solitary. With betas, who have no rut or heat, the age brings on a slight change in hormones marked by awkwardness and heightened sexual awareness, but no bonding with one another.”
“Hm, that is interesting,” Elise said.
“What, exactly, are the theories about what the government is doing with omegas?” Nova asked. I could feel her pheromones rising in the air.
Laura suddenly stood up and announced she needed a glass of water. When she left the room, Maddox answered the question for Nova.
When he finished, Nova was visibly irate and Bertram’s expression was a mixture of horrified and doubtful. Laura returned from the kitchen and sat down.
“Elise, we’d like to hear what you know about the missing omega mole the FBI placed in the government program’s office,” Carter sai.
“All right. I’ll give a recap for Bertram, Trey, and Nova’s benefit.
Last year, in response to an inundation of letters and calls from the relatively new group PRO—Parents of Reintroduced Omegas—several senators called for the FBI to look into the Omega Reintroduction Program.
The FBI planted a beta into the program’s office, then arranged for an omega to be brought in as unregistered.
We recently found out that they’ve lost sight of the omega. ”
“What do you mean, lost sight of him?” Trey asked.
“I mean that one day he was in the books and the next he was not. Today I learned that, upon further inquiry, the beta mole was told that the omega was assigned to an alpha. But the beta can’t find any paperwork about the transaction—any transaction of omegas to alphas, for that matter.”
“That can’t be right,” Trey said, shaking his head and looking upset.
“It’s all just speculation, Trey,” Bertram said.
“I’m sorry, Bertram, but it isn’t just speculation,” Laura said. “The SOS has been aware of this for a long time.”
Trey looked tense. “Do you think my parents know about it?”
“Not necessarily,” Bertram said, giving Laura a warning look.
Vaughn broke the tension. “Meanwhile, I’ve been doing some research into the first colonists to land here in the URA.”
David perked up. “Oh, I read about them. There was an omega on that ship.”
“That’s right. It took some digging and a few phone calls to a friend who has secret connections in the UK, but I got his name. It was Pleasant Adams.”
“Pleasant? Is that even a name, Dad?” Jackson asked.
“It was a popular name for both men and women in the colonies, which may be the reason I was able to find out the next bit of information,” Vaughn said.
“And what was that?” I asked, wishing he’d get to the point. I was worried about Ben.